Mexico lifts empty-truck restriction after 700 tractors stranded at border 

By Monday, nearly 700 tractors were reportedly stranded in Eagle Pass without a way to return to Mexico, according to Elías Tarín, president of the Consejo Binacional de Transportistas, according to news outlet Zocalo.

Tarín said the types of permits held by affected Mexican carriers prevented them from simply sending the tractors to another crossing, such as Del Rio, Texas, to return to Mexico, The restriction also caused commercial traffic at the Eagle Pass international bridges to plummet.

Patricia Mancha, international bridge director for the city of Eagle Pass, told the City Council on Monday that commercial traffic had dropped from approximately 1,000 trucks per day to between 300 and 400.

According to WorldCity data, Eagle Pass ranked as the nation’s 10th-largest border crossing in 2025 by trade volume in March and handled $3.77 billion in total trade.  

The top commodities imported into Eagle Pass, Texas from Mexico via commercial trucks include commercial delivery trucks, passenger cars, beer, motor vehicle parts, and household appliances like refrigerators, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.

On Sept. 8, the day before the restriction took effect, 996 tractor-trailers crossed the city’s international bridges, according to Mancha.

The Piedras Negras-Eagle Pass gateway normally handles about 1,000 commercial vehicles daily, including loaded trucks, empty trailers and tractors operating without trailers.

The disruption also created costs for manufacturers and transportation companies that rely on the crossing.

Alejandro Ruiz Rueda, president of the regional export manufacturing association INDEX, estimated the restriction could have caused logistics losses of as much as $1 million per day.

ANAM has not publicly provided a detailed explanation for why Piedras Negras was targeted by the restriction.

The decision drew concern from transportation companies and customs brokers because empty equipment is a critical part of the cross-border freight cycle. After Mexican trucks deliver international freight into the U.S. border region, tractors and trailers often must return empty to Mexico to pick up another shipment.

CANACAR, Mexico’s national trucking association, warned during the restriction that carriers were facing additional costs, equipment accumulation and uncertainty over their operations.

Industry pressure precedes reversal

The restriction was lifted after transportation industry representatives met Monday with Mexican and U.S. officials to discuss its effects.

Tarín said representatives met with ANAM, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Mexican Consulate to explain the risks and consequences of continuing the restriction. Later that day, Piedras Negras customs officials issued a notice saying empty commercial vehicles could once again cross from the United States into Mexico.

The reversal also headed off a possible demonstration by truckers.

Transporters had discussed blocking access to the Piedras Negras commercial crossing Monday to protest the restriction. The planned demonstration was called off after customs authorities restored empty-truck movements.

ANAM’s reopening notice restored normal movements of empty cargo vehicles from Eagle Pass into Piedras Negras on Monday.

Separately, Mexico’s Tax Administration Service and ANAM said this week that an electrical problem affecting government servers caused intermittent outages in the country’s DODA customs-clearance document system Sept. on Monday and Tuesday. Officials said the system was fully restored by 11 a.m. Tuesday and was operating normally as of Wednesday.

That computer outage was separate from the Piedras Negras empty-truck restriction.

Why it matters: Cross-border trucking depends on the rapid repositioning of tractors and trailers, and the restrictions on empty equipment disrupted subsequent loads while loaded trucks remained free to cross the bridge connecting Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras.